The Batman has done it all; battled it out in Arkham City and Arkham Asylum claiming victory with some amazing boss fights and brawls. It’s no surprise that it’s the same type of game and atmosphere in the new Batman game, Batman: Arkham Origins. However, besides all the boss battles and the thug brawls. Batman: Arkham Origins does not play out as the original story. The game had all the pieces laid out. Thug brawls with great combat system, check; amazing boss battles, check; Batman already having all the upgrades from the previous Batman game series; double check. What? Seems that the younger Batman already has all of his gadgets and knows all the combat moves. Which in trying to make the gamer believe that the original Batman has all these things already equipped really doesn’t give credit to the title of the game. One could say that the developers of this game looked back at the previous Batman games and forgot to add in a few villains that are true to the Batman story line.

COMBAT & GADGETS

One of the last items that Batman unlocks from his belt of many things is an item called the Shock Gauntlets. What this means, and it brings up another good point, is that once Batman has this item equipped and starts punching a few guys in the brawls; Batman becomes unstoppable. Batman just ignores the bad guys that have armor on, those with riot shields and even counters the bad guys with stun batons. Batman has just been given a do it yourself win button. This is great at first but then can get a little redundant over time. But as a prequel, why would a gadget so useful not be included in the previous Batman games?Another type of cheat-gadget that was introduced is what can be called: a remote grapple that strings up the baddies without getting Batman’s’ cape dirty. I like the idea of a remote grappling system. But if you’re Batman wouldn’t you want to get personal and get into the thick of a fight? These gadgets were a good idea but after a while where’s the fun or the challenge in fighting the bad guys?

Batman: Arkham Origins, also has this new feature which allows the gamer to feel as if they are playing detective. Batman comes upon a crime scene and the gamer now can “rewind time” and see how exactly the crime took place. This feature involves the zoom and scan feature. Its pretty cool, but doesn’t allow the gamer to be very interactive. Plus, all you do is find the next clue, which is usually highlighted. So really the gamer is just along for the ride.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR

While exploring the open world of Gotham City, it looked very tranquil; snow covering the roofs of apartments and shopping centers while celebrating Christmas Eve. But Gotham City seemed lifeless. In the previous Batman games the city was walled off. Fair enough, but to only have the shopping centers and streets being patrolled by criminals is a little far-fetched. I mean its Christmas Eve, you know at least somebody will be out shopping late in Gotham City. Besides the bad guys patrolling it just seemed like a ghost town.

Another aspect of this game which quickly annoyed me was that the developers decided to create a bridge that would connect the northern half of the city with the southern half. Seemed like a good idea. But after having to grapple and glide back-and-forth multiple times through this endless bridge was just simply put: annoying. But their is hope. Batman now has a fast travel option. Batman just has to do a few side missions before this can be unlocked.What was also another issue is that while playing on the Xbox 360 when Batman was gliding. The game had issues with the frame rate. Meaning that the Batman was at times gliding in a very slow-mo fashion, especially when Batman has trouble grappling onto things that any child could achieve.

TAG TEAM: MULTIPLAYER

Batman doesn’t like just playing solo anymore. This is the first Batman game to invite gamers into multiplayer mode. Sadly not much thought was put into this mode. More than half of the time the gamer is a bad guy in a third-person shooter. The gamer is in a three man team that tries to control points against a rival gang. The icing on the cake is that two other random players are Batman and Robin(who doesn’t show up in the campaign) trying to knockout both bad guy teams using sneak attacks and grappling hooks. It involves a lot of diversion tactics, cat and mouse basically. But while the shooting mechanics in multiplayer mode appear; multiplayer mode didn’t last very long.

THE VERDICT

Having played through all the Batman games it seems that they are like that candy Now and Later. They’re not good, but they’re terrible either. In comparison to Arkham City and Arkham Asylum, Arkham Origins is a little disappointing. I thoroughly looked forward to this game, but with the game falling behind on some new ideas and the use of a lot of automatic winning gadgets. It makes the game an interesting collection. However it is still a lot of fun going into a brawl and winning. I would rate this game a 7/10.We'd love to hear your thoughts. Have you played the game, are you planning on playing? You can always reach us by commenting below, or...

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